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No, what Dell and co. do is nothing more than tweaking the Windows power options. You can choose between better performance and better battery life. Windows has always been like that. OS X has just always been stuck in "Better battery life" mode.

Really? Maybe that's why they chose to force the dGPU when an external monitor is connected to a 15/16 machine?

🤔
 
Really? Maybe that's why they chose to force the dGPU when an external monitor is connected to a 15/16 machine?

🤔

If you look at modern Windows laptops, the external graphics ports are either wired directly to the dGPU or iGPU. There's always complaints either way. You get the same power complaints when they're wired to the dGPU. When they're wired to integrated graphics, you get complaints that you lose advanced features like DisplayPort 1.4, 12-bit color, 3D, etc. and that you can't shut down the iGPU, so it's always consuming RAM and RAM bandwidth.
 
Gee, I don't think the new 2019/2020 MacBook Pros run hot enough as it is. Sure, let's make them run even hotter so they wear out sooner! Tim Cook, this is s**t.
 
Wait, fan speed limit overridden? So it would have to be on fans that were already validated to run at higher speeds than the system lets them, which makes me think it'll be limited to new models they planned this out on. They would have had to have known the fans could run faster but artificially capped them.
 
Performance... yet they still sell iMacs with HDD's. I know it's only the 21" model now, but ****ing hell, the amount of people I've come across in my career with fairly recent iMacs with appalling performance issues because of that drive. I just had another one the other day. A clients 1 year old 21" iMac. It spent 2-3x more time beachballing than being operated, using it was like pulling teeth. This absolutely blows my mind they still sell these.

Our office was riddled with them until very recently, employees were absolutely hating their beach-balling iMacs. I don't get this. It's serious brand damage to save a buck. Years now it's still going on. Sure, you can spec them up to nullify this issue, but surely they sell more base models than not? It's so not-Apple to me.

On a lesser note, they have a bunch of computers in their lineup with under-powered cooling that either leads of baking temperatures, jet engine noises under strain or both. They need mitigate this more on all non-laptops, the iMac and the Mac Mini.
At least form the iMac Pro, Mac Pro and Macbook Pro 16, they are moving in the right direction.

A software based performance mode? Ok, but maybe fix the hardware first.
 
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Really? Maybe that's why they chose to force the dGPU when an external monitor is connected to a 15/16 machine?

🤔

That happens on certain Windows laptops too like ThinkPad Extreme G1 that I have where there are no paths from iGPU to the monitor via the hdmi port. That caused problems with intel drivers and a lot of stuttering, so you had to disable to force it to use dGPU only and it suddenly works smoothly on external monitors. It's annoying AF but macOS and rMBP 16 had no issues with external monitors for me.

The main issue RIGHT NOW is with the METAL drivers for AMD 5000 series in macOS Catalina 10.15.2. The drivers just are not good. There are major issues with rendering artifacts and issues when being used for compute.

Physically, there is nothing wrong. It is almost entirely visual artifact issues and extremely scattered performance. It's very repeatable in After Effects with the Mercury Engine via GPU acceleration with a bunch of different effects. This has been personally observed in MBP16,1 with 5500M and also with RX 5700XT in eGPU. The same issues do NOT exist in Mojave with RX 580.

Apple (and AMD?) have a lot of work to do with these drivers before W5700X is released, especially if they want to hold off a bunch of really angry customers with deep pockets spending $6K+ on desktops.
So, the issue is stuttering within certain apps? That's what I'm trying to understand, the original post said freezing like it is the entire OS freezing, which I haven't seen but if it is limited to certain apps, then I can understand that and it sucks.

No improvements in 10.5.3 betas or no changes yet?
 
I don't get this. It's serious brand damage to save a buck. Years now it's still going on. Sure you can spec them up to nullify this issue, but surely they sell more base models than not?

Some customers, like schools, government, etc. specify mechanical hard drives because they're cheap or they have mandatory hardware specs that they haven't updated. The base models of their competitors, like HP, Dell and Lenovo, still have hard drives to cater to that market.

The problem is that the IT department who ordered the computers failed to do their job. If somebody needed a delivery truck and the company ordered a compact car, you wouldn't blame Ford for making tiny cars.
 
You want Pro Mode on your MacBook Pro? Tim, are you trying to imply that my Pro notebook is not Pro enough? Apple is more and more like Windows, seriously. There's Game Mode in Windows that does exactly nothing. I'm looking forward to have this feature on my MacBook too.
 
As with Do Not Disturb, Pro Mode is a temporary option that is set to turn off the next day after being enabled, likely to make sure Macs are running in optimal conditions.

:rolleyes: Come on Apple. Your users aren't idiots. Let us make a choice once in a while without second-guessing constantly and switching back to your comfy defaults.

This is really one of the things that bothers me about macOS lately. Apps I have running in the background stop working when I don't use them enough and I have to find terminal commands to keep them going. Even with App nap off it still happens and even with built-in Apple apps (e.g. like encrypting an external drive in disk utility, I wake up the next morning and it has done 1% even do it did a few % per hour before). In the end I had to use the "Jiggler" app to fake mouse movements, not even 'cafeinate' worked.

My Mac wakes up from sleep during the night even though I have "Power Nap" switched off (Screen doesn't come on but I can see my external drive flashing)... I have to run fan control software to stop it from turning into a hot plate. It's hard work to keep using a Mac as a serious computer these days. I need control.

And I have a Mac Mini so I really don't care about battery life. Give me Pro mode all the time without trying to turn it off on me.
 
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My Mac wakes up from sleep during the night even though I have "Power Nap" switched off (Screen doesn't come on but I can see my external drive flashing)... It's hard work to keep using a Mac as a serious computer these days. I need control.

You probably have network wake on. You won't find anything different on a "serious computer", Windows wakes up at 3 AM to check for updates and do tasks like virus scans and defrag.
 
So, the issue is stuttering within certain apps? That's what I'm trying to understand, the original post said freezing like it is the entire OS freezing, which I haven't seen but if it is limited to certain apps, then I can understand that and it sucks.

The full, complete system freeze has ONLY been personally observed when using DP3 on RX 5700 XT in eGPU via MBP16,1. All other issues are are just bad drivers for AMD 5000 series in macOS. The rendering issue above with AE is the most obvious and easy to replicate on numerous devices. The other issues are performance with GPU acceleration. The GPU drivers in Catalina as a whole are just not as good as they are in Mojave. It's especially apparent with AMD 5000 series compared to RX 580.

Some info on this is in this thread where I've been reporting benchmarks and issues:
 
You probably have network wake on. You won't find anything different on a "serious computer", Windows wakes up at 3 AM to check for updates and do tasks like virus scans and defrag.

I run a mix of all 3 OSes, but I've never seen my Windows box (mainly for gaming) do this. I would definitely hear if it did this. And no, network wake is not on. Also, when that happens the screen would wake too (I have used it). It doesn't do this when it wakes up. It's just annoying because the sound of the drive spinning up wakes me up.

But I'm thinking of making Linux my daily driver rather than Mac. This mollycoddling is driving me crazy. As are the many prompts "X" wants access to "Y". It's like Vista now (which Apple made fun of, no less). If I don't trust an app with my stuff I'm not going to install it. Or block it manually in SysPrefs if I really have to. That stuff really needs an off button.

I'll still use Mac as I manage them in work, but they are really starting to alienate me as a power user. I really don't want an iPad Pro Plus Max. I want a computer.
 
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Great, but I hope they’ll call it something else. Many of us are professionals with professional needs that include battery life and relative quiet, etc.
 
Make it exclusive to a macOS Pro subscription model, with other perks, and make the stock go up more. Would have Tim Cook/Wall Street written all over it lol

Not saying they should do it, but I could see it happening.
What? Why would you want to rob people out of the natural performance of their machine? It's not like we didn't pay good money for our machines. Apple should make cooling a priority for all new machines, so you don't have to do the play these games.
 
Great, but I hope they’ll call it something else. Many of us are professionals with professional needs that include battery life and relative quiet, etc.
Does it really matter how they call it?
Most pro’s needs are different anyway.
 
So will this finally speed up my 2018 Core i9 MBP and prevent thermal throttling? I would appreciate this but I guess the thermal design is just too bad.

Lol! This won’t apply to your 2018 mbp, or even 2019 15” mbp’s. Mark my words. This is Apple we’re talking about. The 2019 15” mbp was the razor wire line betwixt two eras. Anything on or below this wire will be snubbed now. This means no “Pro Mode” or any of the really cool new features moving forward.

Everything after the wire will be favored.

It’s how Apple cleans house and how they so brutally move ever towards the future. It has happened time and time again with “end of an era“ models across all of Apple’s lines.

I hope I’m wrong though.
 
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Apple's Macs could soon have the option for a "Pro Mode" that boosts performance according to data found in the macOS Catalina 10.15.3 beta.

Released in December, the beta contains code discovered by 9to5Mac that references an optional Pro Mode that appears to override fan speed limits and energy saving restrictions to improve performance. Code in the beta says "Apps may run faster, but battery life may decrease and fan noise may increase" when Pro Mode is turned on.

macoscatalina10153promodecode-800x137.jpg

As with Do Not Disturb, Pro Mode is a temporary option that is set to turn off the next day after being enabled, likely to make sure Macs are running in optimal conditions.

The code found in the beta seems to suggest Pro Mode is coming to the 16-inch MacBook Pro, but MacRumors has also received an anonymous tip suggesting the Mac Pro will also get a Pro Mode option that will override maximum fan speed software limits for improved thermal performance.

More information on Pro Mode should be available when macOS Catalina 10.15.3 sees a release, provided this is the update where it will be introduced.

Article Link: Macs May Be Getting 'Pro Mode' Option to Boost Performance, According to macOS Catalina Beta
DEAR GOD FIX FINDER AND SMB AND MESSAGES AND EVERYTHING ELSE PLEASE.
 
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"Pro mode" = we will undervolt/underclock your machine by default to keep it quieter (and this new option reverses that).

This is a "fix" for inadequate cooling. Or a band-aid for intel's new power-hog CPUs they're putting out in order to try and stay relevant.

This won't make your machine run faster than it does now. It will revert it back to the current behaviour when not running the new other modes, which will slow it down (less volts, limited clock rate) to make it quieter.
 
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